A weekend in Umeå

Share

Four times a year the Study in Sweden Digital ambassadors meet to create some awesome and creative content for you guys to enjoy on our social media platforms and blogs. This December our ‘meet-up’ as we call them, happened to be in Umeå.

This was my first trip to the North of Sweden and of course I managed to pack the biggest bag!. In hindsight, this was one of the best decisions I ever made as my boots ended up not being waterproof. My large bag had an extra pair of boots.

Umeå Day 1

All the ambassadors traveled from all corners of Sweden to meet up at Umeå. As Andres, Lara, Usisipho, Ivanna and I live the farthest South we got in on Thursday evening. The minute we arrived we dropped our bags off at the hotel and went out to explore.

Source: Anita / The U & Me hotel in Umeå

In our search for food we ended up at MAX burger! This is a student staple! On our way back to the hotel being the millennials that we are decided to stop and take some pictures in the snow and also have a snowball fight. This was my first snowball fight and it was nothing short of amazing!

Credits: Lara / Fun in the snow in Umeå

Credit: Lara / Snowball fight preparation

Source: Lara / Snowball fight

Credits: Lara / Laughing at how cold it is with Andres

Umeå Day 2

This was the official first day of our meet-up. We started of with a content creation workshop in which we discussed different types of blog posts. These are namely rational and emotional. It was interesting to see that majority of the blog posts that I write are emotional but I also write rational posts mostly dealing with practical tips as a student in Sweden.

UmU Arts Campus tour

After all that workshop-ping we needed to stretch our legs and get some fresh air. So, we headed on a tour of the Umeå University campus!

Source: Anita / Umeå Institute of design

The institute of design has officially made it to my list of my favourite buildings in Sweden. It’s looks something between a cheese wheel and a cool rubix cube. We also got to visit the Bildmuseet housed at the campus. Bildmuseet was founded in 1981 exhibits Swedish and international contemporary art, visual culture, design and architecture, sometimes along with art historical retrospectives.

Exhibition

My favourite art installation is Passages by Do Ho Suh. This installation takes you on a journey through the artists life by means of the front entrance of houses that he has inhabited throughout his life. The change of colours of each passage and the detail used makes it a vivid emotional journey. You almost feel as if you have lived there and are recollecting his memories.

Credits: Emma / Passages by Do Ho Suh

Source: Anita / Do Ho Suh : Passages

Credits: Anita / Having fun with Emma and Supritha

Credit: Emma / Passages Do Ho Suh

We also got to see another cool installation by Amar Kanwar called The Sovereign Forest. It is a is a poetic response to the conflict over land and the resistance of local communities in the Indian state of Odisha.

Source: Anita / Amar Kanwar exhibition at Bidmuseet

The way in which he tells stories is uniquely amazing. In the picture below he illustrates over 300 varieties of rice.

Source: Anita / Amar Kanwar exhitibion

Swedish Julbord

After all that walking we headed off to skeppsvik herrgård (Manor House) where we spent the night. Our dinner was a Julbord buffet which is staple Swedish tradition. This includes pickled herring, salmon, bread and cheese and warmer foods such as Janssons frestelse, dopp i grytan. Accompanied with the classic meatballs, sausages, pork ribs and cabbage. Here is a great article on the Swedish Julbord.

Source: Carolina Romare/imagebank.sweden.se / A Swedish Xmas Table

Source: Emma / Some of the digital ambassadors for Study in Sweden at Julbord

Umeå Day 3

We spent most of our morning shooting and planning out our videos in groups. The main themes were environment, working in Sweden, creativity and Equality in Sweden. We can’t wait to see your reactions to the videos. I’ve featured ours on ‘creativity’ below!

P.S. do a test of your winter boots at home. Mine lasted me last winter in Gothenburg but in all fairness it doesn’t snow (alot) in Gothenburg. Umeå showed me that truly snow boots are SNOW boots! Here is post on what to expect of winter by Andres!

As shooting took a toll on us (insert extreme student emoticon) we decided to have lunch at the Christmas market. These are a big Swedish staple over Christmas and you find everything from choirs singing, babies crying, hot reindeer wraps to warm glögg and pepakokka. A Swedish Christmas market is a must do over the holiday!

See a post I did last year on Tjöloholm slott (castle) and Christmas market in Gothenburg.

Check out the video our ‘creativity’ team consisting of Raeed, Emma and Lara did!

After this we headed back into the city to our hotel to freshen up and head over to the Orangiet for some boules and dinner.

Anita

A Kenyan student studying a Masters degree in Global Studies at the University of Gothenburg. If you have any questions about studying in Sweden or general feedback email me on anita.studyinsweden@gmail.com